Get Back the Shinigami
by Shadow of the Forgotten
Summary: Rukia is missing and Ichigo needs someone to go to Soul Society to find her. Enter Ban and Ginji, the Get Backers. Bleach, Get Backers crossover. This story was requested by fallenangel9413
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own Bleach or Get Backers or anything affiliated with said shows.

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

* * *

Ichigo yawned and threw the blankets off his body with a big stretch. Rubbing his eyes, he stifled another yawn as he slowly got out of bed. "Yo Rukia, time to get up." He called out towards his closet while he straightened his sheets. Patting down the blankets, Ichigo rolled his eyes when he didn't get a response. "I know you're in there, now get your ass up. I need to get ready for school, and you're supposed to head back to Soul Society with Renji soon." Still there was no sound and Ichigo sighed in annoyance. "Dammit Rukia, I'm not your babysitter." He grumbled, throwing open the closet door. "Would you get u-…uh, Rukia?" Seeing no sign of the dark haired woman, Ichigo nudged the sleeping stuffed animal that was sprawled across her pillow.

"That's nice Rukia." Kon mumbled sleepily, a small drop of drool rolling down the side of his face.

Rolling his eyes, Ichigo picked the stuffed lion up by its tail and shook him harshly. "Wake up you stupid animal." He said annoyed.

"Ow ow ow!" Kon cried out as he hung upside down by his tail. "That hurts you idiot!"

"Shut up." Ichigo said, glaring at the annoying toy in his hand. When Kon crossed his arms and huffed, Ichigo continued. "Just tell me where Rukia is and I'll put you down."

Kon stuck out his tongue and turned up his nose. "And why should I tell you?" He asked haughtily.

"Because I'll tear your stuffing out if you don't." Ichigo growled impatiently. Raising a hand menacingly, he smirked when Kon's eyes widened.

"O-ok, I'll tell you! No need to turn violent." Kon muttered.

When he didn't continue, Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "…well."

"…I have no idea." Kon said after a few moments of silence. "She must've left while I was asleep."

Ichigo's head dropped and he sighed. "I really should've expected that." He said, shaking his head slowly as he dropped Kon on the floor. Picking up his backpack that he'd tossed near his door last night, Ichigo headed out of his room. "Oh well, I guess she'll come back when she's done. No point in worry about it, she can take care of herself." Heading into the kitchen, he nearly ran right into someone.

"Good morning Ichigo!" Orihime cried out cheerfully. "How are you today?"

Taking a few steps back from the peppy girl, Ichigo smiled slightly. "I'm fine Orihime, how about you?"

"I'm great." Orihime replied. "I was just on my way to school and I thought that since I was early maybe we could walk together."

"Sure, why not." Ichigo said with a shrug. "Give me a second to grab some orange juice and we'll head out." Opening up the fridge, he took a gulp from the orange container and tossed it back onto the shelf. "Well, let's go."

As she followed Ichigo to the door, Orihime couldn't help but notice how quiet it was around the house. "Hey Ichigo, where is everyone?" She asked curiously. "Usually your dad's trying to kick your head in every time I come over, but I haven't seen him since I got here. And Karin and Yuzu aren't here either."

"Oh, dad took them on a trip to the ocean for the week." Ichigo said as he held the door open for Orihime. "I didn't feel like spending the week in a tent so I chose to stay here."

"I see." Orihime said as she walked through the door. Pausing, she cocked her head in thought. "Wait, where's Rukia? I haven't seen her either. Don't tell me your father convinced her to tag along with them; doesn't she know that's dangerous?"

Ichigo shrugged. "Beats me, I haven't seen her since yesterday morning. But I doubt she'd have gone with dad, she's not that stupid."

Orihime tapped her chin in thought. "How strange." She muttered. "Usually Rukia always says goodbye to me before she leaves. I wonder why she left in such a hurry."

"Don't worry about her; I'm sure she's fine." Ichigo said as he glanced at his watch. "Now let's go or we'll be late for school."

"Alright." Orihime said, glancing up at Ichigo's window before turning around and following after the orange haired teen.

ooooo

The school day passed by quickly and soon Ichigo found himself standing outside the large building talking with his friends. "I'll see you guys later tonight then at my place right?" Ichigo asked, and seeing the nods of Chad and Ishida, he waved and walked through the gate of the school. Yawning, he stretched his arms above his head. "Man, I'm beat. Those stupid teachers always make everything so damn boring." He muttered to himself.

"Ichigo, wait up." A voice called after him.

Pausing, Ichigo turned back towards the school to see Orihime running after him. "What's the matter Orihime, did you need something?" He asked politely.

"No, I just thought I'd walk home with you and see if Rukia was back yet." Orihime said with her ever present smile.

With a shrug, Ichigo turned back around and continued on his way home. "Whatever."

The short walk to his house was quiet since neither teen seemed interested in talking. Ichigo was far too tired to make small talk, and though she hadn't actually said it yet, Orihime was really worried about Rukia.

'I wonder why she left so suddenly.' Orihime thought. 'It's not like her to just leave without telling me anything. We are friends after all.'

The minute Ichigo unlocked his door, Orihime brushed past him and ran inside. "Rukia, are you here?" She called out. "Rukia?" Running upstairs, she ran into Ichigo's room and threw open the closet door. "Rukia?" Seeing no sign of the dark haired shinigami, she picked up Kon and gently shook him awake. "Kon, has Rukia come back yet?" She asked.

Rubbing his eyes, the stuffed lion blinked several times before letting out a cry of joy and burrowing into the large chest in front of him. "I've missed you both so much." He cried happily.

Ichigo walked into his room just in time to see Kon launch himself at Orihime's chest. With a growl, he stomped over to the two and harshly pulled Kon away. "You stupid animal, keep your paws to yourself." He said angrily. "Stop trying to grope every girl you see, it's annoying."

Ignoring the interruption, Orihime asked again. "Kon, have you seen Rukia? Has she come back from Soul Society yet?" She asked, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"Nah, I haven't seen her since last night." Kon replied absently as he continued to nuzzle into Orihime's chest. When the arms holding him began to squeeze him tightly, Kon gasped and began waving his arms wildly. "H-hey, I can't breathe here." He squeaked out.

Chuckling at Kon's predicament, Ichigo blinked when he heard sniffles. Turning to face his friend, he was surprised to see tears falling down her face. "Orihime, what's wrong?" He asked worriedly. "Did he hurt you?" Narrowing his eyes at Kon, he was about to tear the toy limb from limb when Orihime spoke.

"We have to save Rukia!" Orihime cried. "She could be hurt, or maybe she was kidnapped and is being held hostage. What'll we do?"

"…um, I'm sure she's all right." Ichigo said slowly. "This is Rukia we're talking about after all. I highly doubt she's gotten hurt, and as for being kidnapped, who would want to kidnap her." When Orihime simply continued to stand there crying, he rubbed his head with a sigh. "Ok, we'll go and find her. Would that make you feel better?"

"Really?" Orihime sniffled, and when Ichigo nodded she smiled brightly. "That's great; I'll go get my coat."

"Wait I never said right now…never mind." Ichigo called out, but Orihime had already run out of the room. Glancing over at Kon, who'd been thrown against the wall when Orihime had taken off, Ichigo shook his head. "I just know that this is your fault somehow." He muttered to the unconscious animal. With one last sigh, he headed towards the kitchen. 'Man, this sucks. Rukia is so going to owe me one when we find her.' He thought in annoyance.

Slipping her arms in her jacket, Orihime smiled. "There you are Ichigo. I'm ready to go now."

"Ok, let's get going then." Pulling on his own coat, Ichigo once again opened the door for Orihime and the two walked outside.

They'd only gone a few feet when Orihime suddenly spoke up. "Hey Ichigo, I thought you were banned from Soul Society for awhile. How are we going to get in if you're not allowed through the gate?" She asked.

Ichigo froze and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Heh heh…oops, I forgot about that." He said with a small chuckle. "Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait for her to come back then. Mr. Afro Shinigami won't let me through and there's no way he'd let you through either. We have no choice but to wait for her to return." Turning around, he was about to head back inside when the sound of tears stopped him.

"B-but what about Rukia?" Orihime sobbed. "How can you just leave her in the hands of her kidnappers? Don't you care about her at all? And I thought she was your friend!"

"Whoa, calm down." Ichigo said, waving his hands in front of him. "I didn't say that I don't care about Rukia, but there's nothing we can do." When Orihime continued to cry, Ichigo rubbed his forehead slowly. "Fine, I'll find someone who can go to Soul Society and look for her. Just please stop crying."

"You will?" Orihime asked with a sniff.

Ichigo sighed. "Yes."

With a small smile, Orihime wiped her tears and headed back into Ichigo's kitchen. "If you don't mind, I think I'll wait here until she's found. I don't want to be alone right now."

"Whatever, make yourself at home." Ichigo said distractedly. "Right now I have to try and find someone who'd be willing to go to Soul Society and bring back a shinigami who's probably not even missing. How the hell did this day get so screwed up." He muttered to himself as he walked up to his room.

Throwing open his bedroom door, Ichigo racked his brain for possible solutions. "Chad can't go since he's not allowed there either. Ishida's out of the question. I can't ask anyone from school, they'd think I'd gone insane, and there's no way I'd ask my psycho father. Great, I've just ruled out everyone. Dammit, why did I have to tell Orihime I'd find someone to send." Plopping down at his desk, he dropped his head to the table with a groan. "This sucks." He whined as he stared blankly at his computer screen. Minutes ticked by and Ichigo was about to go down to give Orihime the bad news when he had a brilliant idea. "I'll just search the net for someone. I'm sure there are people out there who like to do dangerous things. Maybe I can get one of them to go to Soul Society and look for Rukia." Sitting up, he nodded his head in determination and began his search.

It didn't take Ichigo long to realize that his amazing idea was not getting him anywhere. "No matter what I search for, all I get are sites for these stupid corporate companies. I can see it now. 'Hey there, I know you're a huge company and all so I was hoping you'd be able to send a few of your guys to Soul Society to bring a shinigami friend of mine back'…yeah that'd go over real great. Up till the point they call the men in white coats of course." Growling in annoyance, he tugged at his hair in frustration. "There's got to be someone out there who'd be willing to do the job."

After searching for a few more minutes, Ichigo was about to give up completely when a small ad caught his eye. "Hmm, what's this?" He asked out loud. Clicking on the link that would lead him to a group called the Get Backers, he was slightly surprised to see it led to a plain white page with nothing but a phone number and a line that read 'Get Backers, we get back what was taken'. Shrugging, he almost missed the small line of text that was tucked down near the bottom. Scrolling down a little, he blinked several times at the tiny chibi image of some blonde guy giving a thumbs up sign next to a line that read 'You should definitely choose us, we're broke…oh, and we have an almost 100% success rate too!'. "Against my better judgment, I think I'll give them a call. Since they're broke they might be desperate enough to do it for cheap. I don't have that much saved up after all." Grabbing his phone off the desk, he punched in the numbers and waited for someone to pick up.

Several rings later, a woman's voice answered. "Hi, this is the Get Backers right? I have a job for you." Ichigo said into the receiver.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own Bleach or Get Backers or anything affiliated with said shows.

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

* * *

Ginji sat on a park bench, arms thrown over the back and eyes staring blankly at the people passing him by. "I'm so hungry." He mumbled, drool slowly sliding down the corner of his mouth. "If I don't get something in my stomach soon, I'll shrivel up and die." Suddenly a hand came out of nowhere and hit him upside the head.

"Knock it off." Ban growled as he pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and tossed it into the ashtray of a nearby trashcan. "You ate two days ago, so quit complaining." Plopping down on the bench next to his partner, he looked up at the sun and sighed. "I have to admit though; jobs have been really scarce these last few months. We've only had four actual cases and out of those only two gave us any extra cash. If we don't get another job soon, we'll be out on the streets again since we won't be able to pay for our room. And since we can't get our car back from the shop until we pay the bill, we'll have no other choice but to stay right here on these benches." Leaning forward, he rubbed his forehead with a sigh. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but right now I think I'd take almost any job, even if they don't pay well. Some money is better than no money after all."

"Hey you two, what're you doing out here?" A blonde woman asked as she walked up. "Shouldn't you be drowning your sorrows or something over at the Honky Tonk? Oh, wait, let me guess. You were kicked out again huh." She finished with a smirk.

"Great, and I thought this day couldn't get any worse." Ban muttered as he turned away from the beautiful woman.

"Hevn!" Ginji cried out happily. "Please tell me you have a job. Please, please, please. I'm starving!"

"Actually, I do." Hevn said, smiling at the bouncing man and patting him on the head.

"Well that's too bad. We're not desperate enough to take another one of your jobs." Ban said as he stood up and pulled Ginji to his feet. "Remember the last job you gave us, those Outlaws royally screwed us…$5,000 to recover a spaceship, what a rip-off. And to top it off, someone got a picture of us while we were dressed as girls and those stupid pictures are all over the web. There's no way we'd take another job from you unless we had no other choice."

"But you don't have a choice, do you?" Hevn questioned with an evil smile. "I know you're broke and about to be kicked out on the street. Do you really think it's smart to turn down my offer just because of a few photos?"

"Of course not." Ginji piped in. "Besides Ban, everyone says you looked really good." Wincing as a hand once again came in contact with his head, Ginji pouted. "Geeze, can't you take a compliment." He mumbled.

"I still say no." Ban said sternly, crossing his arms to emphasize his point. "Why don't you go find some other idiots to take your offer. We're not interested." Turning around, he grabbed Ginji's hand and began to drag him off.

"Fine, I guess I'll just give the job to Shido then. I'm sure he'll jump at the chance to show you up." Hevn said nonchalantly. When Ban froze and clenched his fist at his side, she smirked. "Well good luck in your job hunt you guys. I've got to be going now."

"We'll take the stupid job." Ban growled through clenched teeth. "There's no way I'd let that damn kept man take another job from us." Releasing Ginji, he held out his hand. "Hand over the information."

"My, aren't we demanding today." Hevn said coyly as she pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. Handing it over, she continued. "A man named Ichigo wants to hire you to get his friend back for him. He was kind of sketchy on the details, but there's his address and the time you're supposed to meet him. He said he'd explain everything in person."

"Hurray, we have a job!" Ginji said excitedly as he jumped around clapping.

Ignoring his partner, Ban read the information and then folded the paper up and tucked it into his pocket. "So how much does this rescue mission pay?" He asked.

"Don't know." Hevn said with a shrug. "Like I said, he wasn't really forthcoming with information so you'll have to ask him when you meet up. I have to get going now, but good luck you two." And with a brief wave, she disappeared down the street.

Ban turned around and shook his head as he watched Ginji bounce around happily. "Somehow I just know I'm going to regret this." He muttered to himself.

ooooo

Two hours later Ban and Ginji walked up to the small clinic's doors. Re-reading the address, Ban scratched the back of his head in confusion. "Ok, this is the right address, but it doesn't look like anyone's here. The whole place is closed up tight and there's not a single light on anywhere." Ban said as he peered through the glass doors. "Dammit, did Hevn give us the wrong info?" Glancing to his left, Ban was surprised to see that Ginji was no longer around. "Hey Ginji, where'd you go?" He called out. Getting no response, he walked around the corner and nearly ran over his partner. Rubbing his forehead, Ban growled. "You idiot! Don't stand just around a corner, no one can see you."

Blinking, Ginji looked up from his spot on the ground in confusion. "Oh, hey Ban." He said as he stood up and brushed his pants off. "I was just talking with this nice man here. He says he knows where Ichigo lives."

"Really?" Ban asked the tall, dark haired teen standing before him. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to show us the way there."

"And what would two suspicious men like yourselves want with Ichigo?" Another man asked as he walked up. "Actually, don't answer that. I'd rather not have any disturbing images in my head right now."

"Who're you calling suspicious?!" Ban asked incredulously. "You're the one dressed in a freaky white outfit. What's weirder than that?"

"How dare you insult my outfit! I'll have you know that this is an official Quincy outfit, though I did alter it slightly to make it a little more me, and as such you have no right to disrespect it." The other man said angrily as he took a few menacing steps forward.

"Calm down Ishida." The tall man said, placing a hand on the shoulder of the one in white. Turning back towards the two who were looking for Ichigo, he nodded towards the other side of the building. "You'll find Ichigo over there. These are the doors for his father's clinic; the one to his house is on the other side."

Ishida crossed his arms with a huff. "I can't believe you're telling them where to go Chad. I'd never help people like them. They're rude and have absolutely no fashion sense whatsoever." He said haughtily.

"Why you little…" Ban bit out. "I ought to crush you."

Seeing the look in Ban's eyes, and knowing things were going to get extremely dangerous if he didn't stop him, Ginji grabbed Ban's arm and began to drag him around the building. "Well thanks for the directions Mr. Chad!" He called out as they headed around the corner.

Once the annoying man was out of sight, Ban took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "Kids these day." He muttered under his breath as the door they were looking for came into view. "Well let's get this over with." Raising his hand, he knocked three times and let his arm drop to his side.

'I only hope this job pays enough that Ban will accept it. I really need to eat soon or I'll die from hunger.' Ginji thought desperately.

A few seconds later the door was pulled open and a busty, brown haired woman looked at them curiously. "Can I help you?" She asked.

"Um, we're looking for someone named Ichigo. We're the Get Backers and he wanted to hire us for a recovery job." Ban said in a business like tone. "Does he live here?"

The woman's eyes widened and she clapped her hands together. "You're the ones who are going to save Rukia!" Turning around she shouted into the other room. "Ichigo, the men are here to save Rukia!" Taking a few steps forward, she hit herself in the forehead with her hand. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Orihime." She said, holding out her hand.

"I'm Ban and this is Ginji." Ban said as he shook the young woman's hand.

"Well it's nice to meet you both, now please come inside." Orihime said after shaking Ginji's hand.

Ban and Ginji followed Orihime inside and into the living room where an orange haired teen was sitting on the couch. "Ichigo, this is Ban and that's Ginji."

"It's nice to meet you both." Ichigo said as he stood up and shook their hands. "Please take a seat and I'll explain the job specifics to you."

"Yeah, Hevn said you were very vague when you talked to her. She didn't have any information for us other than your name and address." Ban said. "Normally we don't take jobs if the clients are so secretive, but we have some free time right now so we figured we'd give you the benefit of the doubt."

When Ichigo nodded his head, Ginji chuckled behind his hand. "Actually it's because we're so broke right now and jobs are almost nonexistent." He whispered quietly.

Glaring at his partner, Ban clenched his pant leg so he wouldn't smack his partner. They really needed this job and it would look bad if he started hitting him.

Unaware of what was going on, Ichigo continued. "I would like to hire you to get back our friend Rukia from Soul Society. She hasn't been back since sometime yesterday and we're worried that something might've happened to her. She's a shinigami so we're fairly certain that's the only place she could be, and since she wasn't planning on going back there today we've decided that something bad may have happened to her. Unfortunately, I can only pay you five hundred dollars though since that's all my savings." Ichigo finished.

Several moments passed in silence as Ban and Ginji absorbed the information.

Suddenly there was another knock on the door and Orihime slipped out of the room to answer it. A few seconds later she came back inside with two men. "Hey Ichigo, Chad and Ishida are here."

"Hey you guys." Ichigo said. "I thought you weren't coming until later."

"I had nothing better to do, and Orihime seemed to be really distressed at school so I thought I'd stop by on my way home from the store." Ishida said as he took a seat on the couch. Ignoring the two men he'd met on the street, he crossed his arms.

"I was on my way to the store when I ran into these two men. When they said they were looking for you I thought I'd see what was going on." Chad said as he leaned up against the wall.

Ban glanced at the two men he'd met outside and then turned back to face Ichigo. "So let me see if I understand this correctly." Ban said as he eyed the teen seriously. "You want us to go to Soul Society, a place where only _souls_ are supposed to go, to bring back a shinigami whom you believe was taken back there against her will. And you want all that for the low price of five hundred dollars. Not only is this idea completely crazy, but you don't have any proof that this Rukia person was kidnapped at all. Maybe she just went back to do something, did you ever think of that?"

"But Rukia always leaves a note to let us know where she's at." Orihime interrupted. "I just know something bad has happened to her." Tears formed in her eyes and she began to sniffle. "You have to help her."

Ban raised an eyebrow and nodded in understanding. "I assume this is the reason we were really hired." He whispered to Ichigo as he pointed towards the busty woman. When Ichigo simply nodded with a sigh, Ban chuckled softly. "Alright, we'll take the job."

"Hurray!" Ginji shouted in joy. "Now I can finally eat a real meal!"

Ban rolled his eyes at Ginji's rather dramatic outburst, but he couldn't find it in himself to hit him on the head this time. It had been several weeks since they'd had an actual job and even his stomach was about to start an uprising if he didn't get some decent food in there soon.

"So…um…how exactly are we supposed to get to this Soul Society place?" Ginji asked curiously.

"Well, you could always try dying." Ishida muttered sarcastically under his breath.

Giving the Quincy a glare, Ichigo turned back towards the two men Orihime had forced him to hire. "I'll talk to the shinigami that watches over this town, he's a real moron so I should be able to convince him to let you guys through. Once you're on the other side though, you'll be on your own. I'm not allowed back there for another few months and these guys aren't really welcome there either right now." Waving his hand at his friends, Ichigo continued. "I wouldn't worry though, Soul Society isn't really all that big, and most of the captains should be busy with their reports this time of year so you shouldn't have any problems."

"What do you mean 'shouldn't'?" Ginji asked with a gulp. "What kind of problems are we talking about here?"

Whacking his partner upside the head, Ban stood up. "Shut up Ginji, you're the one who spent all our money so you have no right to complain." Turning to face Ichigo, he continued. "So when and where should we meet this guy?"

"Be by the park fountain in an hour, you know, the one with all the vines. That should give me plenty of time to get in touch with him." Ichigo said, standing up and holding out his hand.

Sticking out his hand, Ban shook Ichigo's offered one. "Now all we need is the payment and we'll be on our way."

"Oh, right, I forgot about that. Here you go." Ichigo said as he pulled out a small stack of bills. "Good luck you guys."

Ban pocketed the money and with a nod of his head both he and Ginji walked out of the house.

"I can't believe you actually accepted the job." Ginji said once they'd gone a little ways down the street. "Normally you never allow us to take jobs for so little. You're always saying it's not worth taking a job where you don't make any profit."

"True, but this time it's all profit and no work." Ban said smirking. When Ginji raised an eyebrow in question, he rolled his eyes. "Come on, you don't really believe all that talk about shinigami and whatnot. Obviously those teens are delusional and have created this little fantasy of theirs to make their lives more interesting. I bet this Rukia person, assuming she even exists of course, is out of town on vacation or something. So since she's gone they got it in their heads that she's been taken, when in reality they're only fueling their little make-believe world."

"I see." Ginji said as the wheels in his head slowly processed the information. "So we took money from a bunch of crazy kids. Wow, we're really pathetic huh."

"Oh shut up." Ban said in annoyance. "You're as hungry as I am so you've no right to complain."

Ginji nodded and then smiled widely as they walked past a restaurant. "Look Ban, food!" He cried excitedly. "Let's go eat while we wait."

"Sure, why not." Ban said as he followed after his skipping friend.

ooooo

Back at Ichigo's house, the four teens were all discussing the two men they'd just hired to get Rukia back. "I wish we could've paid those two more money. I feel bad sending them on such a dangerous mission for so little pay." Ichigo said as he grabbed his coat from behind the door.

"Well, they were idiots." Ishida said with a smirk. "Maybe they truly believe that we're making the whole thing up. Won't they be in for a surprise when they get to the fountain."

"You should be nicer to them Ishida, they are helping us after all." Orihime said, glaring at the Quincy from her seat at the table.

Before anyone could say anything else, Ichigo pulled open the front door and stepped outside. "I'll be back in twenty minutes. Try not to destroy my house while I'm gone." Any response he may have gotten was silenced when he slammed the door closed behind him. "And now it's time to find Mr. Afro and convince him to send those Get Backers to Soul Society."

ooooo

An hour later Ginji followed Ban back to the park they'd been at earlier that day. Walking over to the fountain they were supposed to meet the shinigami at, Ban sat on a nearby stone bench and stretched. "Well you might as well get comfortable Ginji, we were paid so we have to at least try to do the job. I figure we can wait here for a half hour or so and then head on home. And when Ichigo calls us about the job we can tell him we waited but the guy never showed up."

"Sounds good to me, my stomach's so full right now I don't think I could handle having to work." Ginji said as he plopped down next to Ban and closed his eyes. "Wake me up when it's time to leave."

Just then a man with an afro, who was wearing a black outfit, appeared in front of them. "Ok, now I'll open the gate up over here and then find those two souls I'm supposed to send through." He said to no one in particular.

Ban, who had been about to doze off himself, looked over at the strange man curiously. 'I wonder what the hell that guy's talking about. There are no gates around here.' He thought to himself as the man did some really strange movements and said something he couldn't make out.

"Be quiet Ban, I'm trying to sleep." Ginji mumbled sleepily.

"Ginji, wake up. You've got to see this guy, he's crazy." Ban whispered as he shook his partners shoulder. "He thinks he's going to open up a gate in the middle of the park."

Clapping his hands together, the man with the afro closed his eyes and waited. A few seconds later a large doorway appeared in front of him and he nodded his head in satisfaction. "I told Ichigo that I could do it. That'll teach that boy for doubting my skills. Now, where did he say those two lost souls were going to be?"

"Ban, did you see that?!" Ginji shouted in shock. "That guy just created a door out of thin air!"

Before Ban could respond, the man turned around and headed over towards them. "Ah, so you must be Ban and Ginji, the two lost souls Ichigo told me about. Well I've opened up the gate to Soul Society for you so off you go." He said, waving his hand at the doorway. When the two men sat there staring with wide eyes, the shinigami rolled his eyes. "What troublesome souls." He muttered. Shaking his head, he grabbed both men by the arm and propelled them into the gate. "Good luck on your journey." He called after them.

As soon as they were gone, the shinigami clapped his hands one last time and sealed the gateway. "Ok, now back to work for me." He said. And with a whistle he took off towards his post.

ooooo

Ban blinked several times as his eyes tried to adjust to the light around him. "What the hell just happened? One minute we're in the park watching that nut job do magic tricks and now we're in some old city. And where the hell did this sun come from? Wasn't it night a few seconds ago?" He asked out loud.

"Uh, Ban, I'm starting to think Ichigo was telling us the truth." Ginji whispered as he ducked behind Ban.

"And why would you say that?" Ban asked.

"Because of them." Ginji said, pointing at the small group of men that were approaching them. "They're dressed exactly like that crazy man in the park."

Turning to look where Ginji was pointing, Ban's eyes widened. "Well shit, I think we're officially screwed." He muttered as the shinigami continued towards them.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own Bleach or Get Backers or anything affiliated with said shows.

"Speaking"

'Thoughts'

* * *

"You there, what are you doing here. Don't you know this area is off limits to unauthorized souls?" The lead man asked as he approached the two trespassers, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade to show he meant business. "Leave now or we'll remove you by force." Nodding his head slightly, he gave a silent order and his squad formed a half circle around the intruders while drawing their zanpakuto's.

Since Ginji was currently cowering behind his back, Ban looked at all the swords directed at them and came to a decision. "We were just leaving." He said quickly, grabbing his partner's hand and turning to run off down the street.

The lead shinigami looked at the cloud of dust that was left in their wake and blinked several times. "…ok then." He said as he pulled his hand away from his blade. Nodding towards his squad once again, he waited for them to put away their zanpakuto's and then continued on his patrol. With a small shake of his head, he silently wished that all the problems could be dealt with that easily.

After turning down several random streets, Ban and Ginji stopped to catch their breath. "I can't believe this crap. The only reason I agreed to take this job was because I was certain those kids were out of their minds. Now we're in Soul Society, a place I didn't even believe existed a few hours ago mind you, and we have to find a shinigami named Rukia. I really screwed up this time didn't I?" Ban muttered to himself as he leaned up against the wall of a nearby building.

"At least we got to eat though." Ginji said, a small smile on his lips as he thought about all the tasty food he'd eaten a little while ago. "Besides, there's no point in complaining about the job now, we already took it, so we might as well just find this Rukia so we can get out of here."

Ban raised an eyebrow slightly at his partner. "Wow, that's the first smart thing you've said in awhile." Ban said with a smirk, only to wince a second later when Ginji punched him in the arm. "Oh come on, I was joking…well sort of." When Ginji growled, Ban chuckled. "Ok, ok, enough messing around, we have a job to finish and I'd like to get out of here ASAP. Being in a place for souls is kind of creeping me out."

"I know what you mean; I keep waiting for a ghost to just pop up out of nowhere and try to scare me to death." Ginji said as he glanced around somewhat nervously.

The two continued to stand there for several more minutes before Ginji finally spoke up again. "So…um…where do we go from here?" He asked curiously.

"…I have no clue." Ban said slowly. "Everything looks the same here and I have no idea where we even came from anymore. I guess we'll just have to look around until we find someone we can ask. Preferably someone who isn't carrying a very sharp sword." Turning around, he was about to head down the street to his left when he heard voices from around the corner. Ducking back behind the wall, and pulling Ginji with him, Ban waited silently as the voices got closer.

"Why don't we just ask them?" Ginji questioned.

Shaking his head, Ban put his finger to his lips to tell Ginji to be quiet. "Let's listen first." He whispered softly.

As the voices got nearer, the two Get Backers were able to make out part of the conversation. "So let me see if I understand this correctly. There were two lost souls here in Soul Society and they got away. I thought I told you it was your job to make sure I always have new souls to experiment on, and you can't even manage to track down a couple of lost little ants before the other squads find them. You are worthless Nemu, absolutely worthless." The first voice said angrily. "How am I supposed to perfect my experiments if you can't get me any test subjects?"

"Sorry Captain." The second voice replied almost mechanically.

"Well I guess it's too late now." The first voice continued. "I'll just have to use one of those pathetic modified souls I've got in storage. I really hate using those things; they never give me good data."

As the voices disappeared down the road, Ban and Ginji looked at each other with wide eyes. "We almost became experiments in some freaky sounding guy's science project." Ban said quietly. "Forget the job; let's get the hell out of here!" Grabbing Ginji's hand, he was about to drag him off when a voice behind him made him freeze.

"What are you two doing here?" A male voice asked. "Are you guy's lost or something?"

Turning around slowly, Ban gulped when he saw the sword at the man's side. Of course the tattoos on his face didn't give him a warm fuzzy feeling either. "Nope, we were just heading home now." He blurted out quickly. Turning back towards the road he was planning on taking, he nearly screamed when a hand fell on his shoulder.

"I wouldn't go that way if I were you." The man said. "I just saw Captain Kurotsuchi head down there and he tends to "pick up" wandering souls so he can use them for his twisted little experiments. Why don't you guys come with me, I'll take you to the front gates myself since I don't have anything to do right now."

"Wow, that would be great!" Ginji said excitedly.

"Yeah, thanks for your help…um…" Ban trailed off as he eyed the man expectantly.

"Oh, my name's Renji." Renji said with a grin. "I'm the Vice Captain of Squad 6." He finished proudly.

Ban and Ginji looked at each other and shrugged. They had no idea what he was talking about, but if this Renji guy was willing to help them out then who cares. "That's…great, you must be really strong. I'm Ban and this is my friend Ginji." Ban said with a forced smile.

Renji nodded his head. "It's nice to meet you both." Turning back around, he started walking. "Come on you two, let's get going. Today's my day off and I have a lot of things I've been waiting to do for awhile now."

"Sounds good to me, I'm more than ready to get home. As it is, I'm going to have nightmares for weeks." Ban muttered under his breath as he followed after the redhead.

The trio walked in silence for awhile, Renji was busy planning out what he'd do once he dropped the two souls off at the gate, and Ban and Ginji decided it would be safest if they kept their mouths shut and got the hell out of there as soon as possible. Unfortunately, luck was not to be on their side as a few moments later a black butterfly appeared and Renji shook his head after it delivered its message.

"So much for my plans." Renji said in annoyance. Looking back at Ban and Ginji, he sighed. "Sorry you two, but it looks like I'll have to take a slight detour before taking you to the gates. The Captain wants to have a word with me so I have to go see him right now. I'll try to make it quick."

Being as they really had no other choice but to follow their new friend, unless they wanted to take their chances with the creepy scientist, Ban and Ginji simply nodded their heads and followed after Renji as he changed directions.

They walked for another five minutes before coming to a stop outside of a small building. "Well here we are." Renji said. "Why don't you two wait out here and I'll be out as soon as possible." Seeing their nods, Renji slid open the door and stepped inside. "Yo, Captain, I'm here." He called out as he haphazardly closed the door.

Taking a seat, Ginji yawned behind his hand. "I'm so tired." He mumbled sleepily.

Ignoring his partner, he was always whining about something, Ban chose instead to listen to what was going on inside the building since the door was left partially open. What he heard had him blinking in surprise.

"Oh, hi Rukia. I didn't know you were back." Renji's voice said from inside.

"Did he just say Rukia?" Ginji asked as he jumped up from his seat.

Without bothering to answer, Ban threw open the sliding door and barged inside the building. "Rukia, we've found you!" He practically shouted. When three pairs of eyes turned to look at him like he'd lost his mind, he chuckled nervously. "Heh heh, I guess I should explain myself huh."

"If you wish to remain in one piece…yes." The black haired man sitting at the table said in a no nonsense tone. "And you'd better hurry up; I dislike being interrupted during my tea time."

Ignoring Ginji as he paled and hid behind him, Ban got down to business. "Well you see, this kid named Ichigo hired us to bring Rukia here back from Soul Society. He was worried you might've been kidnapped or something and since he couldn't come here himself he hired us to get you back. Now I didn't believe a word he said, I thought he and his friends were a little off in the head, but we needed the money so I agreed to take the job. So we waited at the park like we were instructed and the next thing we kno-." He rambled on, only to be cut off abruptly.

"Enough, I don't care about your problems, I only wanted to know why you barged into my house." The dark haired man said in annoyance before turning to face the girl sitting across from him. "Rukia, why is Ichigo under the impression you were kidnapped?" He asked curiously.

"I have no clue." Rukia said with a shrug. "I told Kon that I was coming here to visit you and he said he'd tell Ichi-…Kon screwed up again." She said with a groan. "I'm going to kill that stupid lion when I get back." Standing up, she shook her head. "Sorry for the intrusion brother, I'll take these two home now."

"Yay, we get to go home!" Ginji said happily, only to gulp when the dark haired man glared at him. "Sorry." He squeaked out.

Shaking his head, Ban drug his partner outside behind Rukia. "That's the last time I try to make easy money on a job." He muttered under his breath.

Stopping in the courtyard, Rukia looked at the two men Ichigo had sent into Soul Society after her. "I'm sorry about this." She said with a small bow of her head. "I didn't think coming back early would cause so many problems. Trust me though; I'll deal with Ichigo myself."

Ban and Ginji watched as she did the same thing the afro haired shinigami had done in the park. Seconds later an identical gate appeared and the two Get Backers nearly cried in joy. Well Technically Ginji did cry, much to the embarrassment of Ban. "Would you knock it off." Ban growled as he hit Ginji upside the head.

"But I'm just so happy to be going home." Ginji said with a sniffle.

Rolling her eyes, Rukia nodded towards the gate. "I'm not going to keep this open forever." She said, and in the blink of an eye, the two men had disappeared. "What a mess this day's turned out to be." She muttered as she walked through the gate as well.

Seconds later, Ban and Ginji found themselves outside the clinic where the whole fiasco started. "Hurray, we're home at last!" Ginji cried out as he dropped to his knees and kissed the ground.

Before Ban could say anything, Rukia appeared next to them and the gate closed behind her. "Ok, let's get you inside so we can get the hell away from you crazy people." Ban said, walking up to the door and knocking twice.

The door opened and Ichigo popped his head out. "Can I help…oh, it's you guys. Did you find Rukia?" He asked. "Orihime's been really worried."

"I'm right here moron." Rukia said as she hit the teen upside the head. "Now, would you care to explain why you felt the need to hire these idiots to bring me back? I'm more than capable of getting to and from Soul Society on my own." Crossing her arms in irritation, she waited for an answer.

"It was all Orihime's idea!" Ichigo blurted out. "She was worried about you; she thought you'd been kidnapped, so she asked me to hire someone to bring you back. I swear, it wasn't my idea!"

"But you're the one who went along with it aren't you?" Rukia growled. "Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to have them barge in while I was drinking tea with Byakuya? He'll probably never let me live it down."

Ban nodded at Ginji and the two of them began to inch away quietly while the pair was fighting. Turning the corner, they heaved a sigh of relief and then started towards home. Ignoring the sounds of swords clanging together, Ban looked up at the red sky. "You know, I still have some money left over, how about we go get some breakfast." He asked.

"Sounds good to me, I'm starving." Ginji replied with a smile.

"I thought you might be." Ban grinned. "Now where do you think we should eat?"


End file.
